Auto assist, which is part of agent copilot, understands the content of submitted tickets and makes suggestions to your agents on how to solve them. Agents spend less time on repetitive tickets, solve tickets in a more consistent way, and ultimately close more tickets.
These suggestions can be replies that the agent should send to the customer, or actions that the agent should take. Auto assist suggestions appear in tickets in the Agent Workspace in place of the composer.
Watch the demo video below to see auto assist in action:
Agent copilot featuring auto assist (4:43)
To help you get the most out of Zendesk’s AI Copilot features, this article provides an overview on how admins can get started with auto assist.
Step 1: Identify a problem where auto assist can help
To identify a specific problem where you would like auto assist to suggest replies, think of scenarios where your agents receive a lot of tickets that require repetitive back and forth. For example:
- Advising a user on buying a product or service sold by your company
- Explaining a business policy
- Helping troubleshoot a problem
Step 2: Turn on auto assist and define who has access
After you’ve identified a problem, turn on auto assist and define which groups of agents have access.
If you want to test auto assist yourself first, then select or create a group that only you’re in.
To turn on and configure access to auto assist
- In Admin Center, click AI in the sidebar, then select Agent copilot > Auto assist.
- Select Show auto assist replies and actions in the agent composer.
- In the Who has access field, search for and select the groups that should be able to use the suggested replies feature. By default, all groups have access.
- Click Save.
See Turning on and configuring auto assist for more information.
Step 3: Write a procedure for the problem
Write a procedure that describes how the problem you identified should be handled. Procedures are the instructions that auto assist should follow when suggesting replies or actions to an agent in a ticket.
When writing a procedure, think of the way you would tell an agent how to proceed with solving the problem you identified.
To write a procedure for the problem you’ve identified
- In Knowledge admin, click Manage articles
(
) in the sidebar. - Select Procedures, then click Create procedure.
- In the Name field, enter a descriptive name for the procedure.
- To associate the procedure with specific brands, open the right-hand Settings panel, click Selected brands, then choose the brands you want to associate the procedure with.
- Click below the name field and enter the content for your procedure.
To add specific actions to your procedure, click the Insert action (
) button in the
toolbar. - To publish your procedure, click the drop-down arrow next to Save draft and select Publish.
- In the window that appears, click Publish.
Published procedures are automatically available for auto assist to use.
See Creating procedures for auto assist for more information.
Step 4: Add a tag to tickets for which you created a procedure
Each ticket needs to have an “agent_copilot_enabled” tag. A good practice is to add this tag for tickets with a specific intent, after writing a procedure on how to handle those.
The tag should only be added to tickets for which you have created a procedure. Otherwise, auto assist will suggest replies to tickets without procedures, which leads to suggestions that aren’t applicable to your business.
To create a trigger that adds the auto assist tag to tickets
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Business rules >
Triggers. - On the Triggers page, click the Ticket tab, then click Create trigger.
- Enter a Name, Description, and Category for your trigger. See Creating ticket triggers for details.
- In the Conditions pane, under Meet ALL of the following
conditions, add the following conditions:
- Ticket status | Is | New
- Tags | Contains none of the following | agent_copilot_enabled
- Under Meet ANY of the following conditions, add the following
conditions:
- (Optional) Channel | Is | <select the channel you want the trigger to work on>
- (Optional) Intent | Is | <select an intent you have created a procedure for>
- In the Actions pane, add the following action:
- Add tags | agent_copilot_enabled
- Click Create.
See Configuring auto assist on messaging or email channels using tags on answers for more information.
Step 5: Test your procedure
Test your procedure before letting auto assist suggest replies or actions in a real-world setting.
If the suggestions aren’t accurate, review the procedure best practices and edit your procedure. Creating an effective procedure is an iterative process that usually takes a few tweaks to get right.
To test a procedure
- Make sure you’ve limited the agents who can interact with auto assist to only the groups or agents who are performing the testing.
- Create a messaging or email ticket with the agent_copilot_enabled tag.
Email tickets must be created from an email that's not associated with any agents in your Zendesk account, because auto assist doesn't respond to agent comments.
- Try to solve the ticket with auto assist’s help.
- Iterate the procedure until you get accurate and helpful suggestions.
See Testing a procedure for more information.
When you’re satisfied with auto assist’s suggestions for your procedure, invite your agents to test it live with customers.
Each suggestion must be approved by the agent before it is sent so there’s little risk in trying this live.